Hello everyone! I am touched by all of the concern and outpouring of support for the people of Japan...my own mother, who is 81, is currently in Michigan with my sister, attending various fund raisers and representing the many elderly people affected by this natural disaster. The Japanese people are very resilent, yet proud. They are determined to carry on and this includes returning beauty back to the ugliness.

I definitely think that a craftalong will at least show people how many ways that this culture has inspired and delighted us all...from Totoro, Sailor Moon, lolita fashions, kawaii, kimonos, kokeshi dolls, cherry blossoms, etc. We all have been touched creatively by these remarkable people.

I hope to add to this craftalong by making items from my stash of kimono fabrics...I love the little flowers and the dragon tin!

Can't wait to see the kokeshi dolls! They are going to be so cute!

Ruby, I am editing your front page to comply to the new craftalong rules of putting in dates...I will just keep it ongoing for now...

D'oh, yes, I forgot the ongoing and date thing... sorry! Thanks for adding it. Indeed, one of the very first things I did after seeing the terrible pictures in the news was pick up my crochet hook and making something Japanese inspired, sort of in honor of the wonderful inspiration that Japan has been to me for decades, and especially in times when I felt bad. It was even before I reached out into the internet to talk to others. I probably also needed to put up something between me and the news... only later, the idea of finding other craftsters who might think the same came up, and I'm very glad about the discussion thread we had. The kimono fabric sounds wonderful!

I'm not sure about the rules and stuff, but ever since I found out that my friends in Japan were all ok I wanted to do something for people who were less lucky. We are having a fundraiser in Nottingham and I'm making sakura (cherry blossoms) mainly via the medium of beads for earrings and other jewellery (no pic as I'm still learning how to make them...not bad!) I don't know if anyone would buy them but any advice anyone can give me would be great you're all making such cute stuff I'd like to make as much as possible! I can't crochet but beading, knitting and polymer clay are things I'm less bad at - so if anyone is making anything like that please share!!arigatou gozaimasu!

I second the request of beading, knitting and polyclay! And it's so great to hear of more crafty initiatives. So many crafters out there, it had to happen!

Here's what I made this week for the Crafts for Japan auctions:Lots of trial pieces for the kokeshi dollsj, a little totoro (my son was so upset that I want to give it away that he's probably donating out of his pocket money to get it), a mysterious black amigurumi torso and a start into a monokuro boo. Not pictured: The kodama that is almost done. The kokeshi pattern I was using didn't come out like I wanted, so I'm still experimenting on relations, and sizes...I finished one, the green one on the left.

While I made it, I had lots of doubts, but for a trial piece, it's come out nice.

And I still make flowers:

Making beautiful Japanese things helped me calm down and deal with all the news about Japan... at least something that I can do. If some donations come out of it, all the better.

And the kodama is finished! I made a ton of these for the wonderful Miyazaki swap a while ago, and I still had all the parts for another one made, but never assembled them. So now I did, and here it is!Another one my kids will be upset for putting it in the auction. I must say I'd be sorry to let it go, but just one more reason to make some more! AmiAmour has been very sweet and licensed the use of her kodama pattern for a good cause, so thanks! She also will let us use a banner she's made - it'll soon be on, I just need to battle down the forum layout and find out how to add this kind of stuff (total admin noob ).

I've asked other crafster members about using things made from their patterns, too (I thought I should as it border on selling things) and both pinkleo (Luna Lovegood scarf) and Wayuki (monokuroo boo) were very kind and didn't hesitate to let me use their patterns for this cause.

I can understand about the price (although I wouldn't pay it), depending on how many flowers there were. I can make three of the big flowers in one hour. For a scarf, crocheting time alone would probably be four hours, maybe more, depending on the size. Plus material, plus various costs...if it was a stole, to be wrapped around the shoulders, it'd be fourty-something flowers (I checked: 46). So that's at least fifteen hours of happy colorful crafting... hm... scarf... that's a good idea... I had been thinking table runner... but a scarf would be cool too, in wool... Hehe, anyone who wants any of these, table runner, scarf or stole, please contact me. I love making these flowers.

I tried something with some of the 8-petaled flowers (and safety pins, ahem), and hung it in my windowNow that's boring. So much for the table runner idea.But I'll try something with the 12 petaled flowers, too. And here's some smaller things I've dug up from my "jar of little crochet thingies" stash and made into keychains, or plan to:

I had to do quite some explaining to the kids that no, this isn't their play sushi, but a different one that I've made.